Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips

Locally Produced, Too Good for Just for Baking



I am not usually in the market for chocolate chips. It's just not found in the kind of baking I tend to choose to do. I am haunted by the memory of a childhood full of very bad baking chocolate, nothing like the artisinal and quality products I am more used to today. Maybe the good stuff was actually available back then, I am not sure? If it was, it certainly wasn't on my radar and it was undoubtedly too expensive for my mother to buy. The Baking Chocolate I grew up didn't taste so great on its own, which I am sure was another reason for her purchasing it - it stopped the kids from wanting to pilfer it from the pantry.

Last year I donated a prize to Menu for Hope, whereby I promised I would bake the winner a batch of Wookie Cookies using locally sourced or organic ingredients, where possible. It was baking those cookies last week, that led to my discovery of Guittard Real Milk Chocolate Chips. We all know that it is the Chef's duty to try the food as they work, so I popped one of these larger-than-average buttons into my mouth.

Mmmmm. I am usually more of a darker chocolate fan but these Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips were totally dreamy, smooth, creamy and thick with chocolate and vanilla. If you're a(n old) Brit you might know what I mean if I say they are more like a sorely missed Galaxy Counter than a chalky, too-sweet Cadbury's Chocolate Button.

Needless to say, once the necessary amount of chocolate chips had been weighed out for the recipe, the rest of them didn't survive much longer than a day or two. Sigh.

Local Resources
Previous Post on Becks & Posh | E. Guittard Chocolate Launch 5 New Bars
Now Made in Burlingame | The History of Guittard


© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips

She Buys Mystipies

For Their Perfect Flaky Crusts



Fellow foodblogging friend, Jeanne of Cooksister in London is hosting a foodblogging event today called "Waiter, there's something in my..." that requires participants to make a pie. Any kind of pie, as long as it is 'covered'. Over here in San Francisco, even Sandra Lee would be hard pressed to put as little effort into pie making as I do.

The recipe is simple: All it takes is a trip to the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market where I can pick up a delicious handmade, artisinal chicken and mushroom Mystipie for $6. I then rush it home to a preheated oven, where I settle it to heat for 20 minutes. This is cooking at its easiest folks! The impressive result of all my hard work in the kitchen is a warm crispy mass of buttery, flaky pastry, encasing a creamy filling of chicken and mushroom, that shatters, crumbles and crunches as I hurry to eat it. It's a few minutes of messy, mouthwatering fun.

To be honest, what's inside the pie is of little consequence here, so overshadowed is it by the tower of light, crispy leaves that hide it from view. The Vegetable Coconut Curry pies have a great flavour, but I prefer some texture and bite in the middle of my pie, so I tend to go for the meat ones instead. The filling is just a vehicle for pastry, anyway and that's the allure. I don't have much patience for making flaky pastry, so I am lucky I have found Yumna who will do it for me.

Yumna, who I met at the Fancy Food Show, is from South Africa. She first started making these pies when she got homesick. She says:

"The smell of pies always reminds me of home. My fondest memory is waking to the delicious aroma of freshly baked beef pies wafting through the house. I still think of my mum every time I smell pies baking."

Thankfully for all of us San Franciscans, Yumna stopped getting homesick, but because everyone she knew loved them so much, she kept on making the pies that had given her so much comfort. One friend even described them as a 'warm hug' which perfectly sums up their attraction. Mystipies are available at the La Cocina stall on Saturdays at the Ferry Plaza, at the Alemany Farmers' Market or at Mission Pies.

Local Resources
South African style Pies | Mystipies
Community Kitchen | La Cocina
Other Resources & Further Reading
Event Host | Cooksister



© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

She Buys Mystipies

Sticky Little Caramel Walnut Tarts

From Petite Patisserie, Potrero Hill, San Francisco



My love for Petite Patisserie, the little organic bakeshop that opened on 18th Street almost six months ago, grows stronger with every visit. The walnut tart pictured above, just seconds before I gobbled it up, every last crumb, really has me hooked right now. The pastry is tender and so buttery, I could happily eat it with no filling present at all, but those sticky, gooey, toffeeish walnuts are the real draw. This patisserie is such a danger to my diet, I've almost considered moving to a different 'hood City State Country. Next time you are in Potrero, don't miss out on Petite. You'll be charmed.



Little tarts like the one above cost $4.50 each

Petite Patisserie: 1415 Eighteenth Street, Potrero Hill, San Francisco CA 94107

I have made more than three visits to Petite Patisserie.

Archives
2005 | Marmite on Toast

(PS - Have you heard about the Guinness marmite?!)


© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Sticky Little Caramel Walnut Tarts

La Cocina Launches at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

And I Discover ClaireSquares
(much to the pleasure of my belly and the regret of my waistline)

Claire with her Squares: Little Blocks of Heaven

Do you know any of those food-obsessed kind of people who prefer to only buy unprocessed food and to make absolutely everything from scratch if possible. You know - the kind of people who, if they were throwing together an English trifle would, make the Boudoirs themselves, and make up some freshly made custard, using egg yolks and cream without going anywhere near Birds Instant Custard Powder. Yes, I am one of those people. And for the longest time I have been meaning to find out, some day, how to make some of those shortbread and caramel squares topped with chocolate, those Millionaire's Shortbreads that I sometimes miss from the UK.


Rewind to last Saturday when I was preparing for a little dinner party. Early in the morning, co-chef Amanda and I popped to the market to pick up the remainder of the ingredients we were missing for our feast. And because we needed some energy, some breakfast, we decided to stop at La Cocina on their inaugural day at the market.

La Cocina is a Community Kitchen, a nonprofit, shared use, commercial kitchen and business incubator. La Cocina was founded to serve as a platform for low-income entrepreneurs launching or expanding their food businesses. La Cocina assists low-income food entrepreneurs by providing access to a fully approved and equipped commercial kitchen and to the training and technical assistance they need.

And this is where I discovered Claire. And her Squares. Claire grew up in Ireland where, as a child, she started baking these treats and selling them at school. Clairesquares.com are the most delicious caramel shortbread chocolate squares I have ever tasted. I am not sure about Ireland, but back in Britain I am certain they used to make these with margarine and cheap baking chocolate. But not Claire, she only uses the best preservative-free ingredients - Belgian chocolate, unbleached flour, butter! These squares are quality, they should rightly be called Gazillionaire's Shortbreads. You even have a choice of a milk or plain chocolate topping. That's what I call class, that's what I call luxury. That is also what I call a good enough excuse to let someone else do your baking for you from time to time...

Local Resources
Community Kitchen | La Cocina
Delicious | Clairesquares
Flakiest Pastries, Mmmm | Mystiepies
Cute Jams | CMBsweets

Other Resources & Further Reading
Archives
2006 | Mabel's Just For You Cafe - 22nd Street - San Francisco
2005 | Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

La Cocina Launches at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market